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Monday, November 24, 2014

Belgrade Airport sees record October

Belgrade Airport registers strong October performance

Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport has seen its busiest October on record. It welcomed 406.757 passengers during the month, an increase of 38.2% compared to 2013. The number of flights operating to and from the Serbian capital also increased sharply, by 22.8% to 4.908. A total of 795.068 kilograms of commercial cargo was handled, an improvement from 762.271 kilograms last year. The strong growth is being primarily driven by Air Serbia which has more than doubled its passenger numbers this year. Over the past ten months, Belgrade Airport has handled 3.996.988 travellers, up 32.1% on the same period in 2013. On November 4, the airport welcomed its four-millionth passenger for the year.

The acting CEO of Belgrade Airport, Saša Vlaisaveljvić, recently said, “Next year we expect to see passenger growth of around 10%, which means we are reaching the upper limits of our capacity, so we have to invest in infrastructure”. According to the CEO, the airport is ready handle long haul flights from 2015. Earlier this week, the Serbian Minister for Transport and Communication, Zorana Mihajlović, said, “During next year we will definitely decide how we are going to expand Belgrade Airport, because it will be unable to handle all passengers if this growth rate continues. We could never have anticipated such large growth”.

Meanwhile, the Serbian Civil Aviation Directorate has concluded Bilateral Air Agreements and Memorandums of Understandings with fourteen countries over last week at the ICAO Air Services Negotiation Conference in Bali, Indonesia. Successful talks have taken place with counterparts from the United States, Egypt, Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Seychelles, Morocco, New Zealand, Pakistan and Vietnam. The Directorate says talks with the United States were held in relation to planned flights from Belgrade to the States in the second half of 2015, while Air Serbia has expressed interest for agreements to be made with the other abovementioned countries as well. The Serbian Directorate was the only aviation regulator from the former Yugoslavia present at the ICAO conference among 78 other countries.

Until the economy is not revived they will not have any flights. Best case scenario is to get Wizz Air. Also, i do not understand your comment about the only airport in the country. This growth occurred thanks to transfer passengers.

Well, if they transported 3.996.000 pax by end of October, and then it took them 4 days to reach the 4 million mark, I'd say that we can expect negative numbers in November... or maybe it was just PR :)

Will be interesting to follow what happens in 2015. I am still hoping that they will add more aircraft because there is no way they will manage to pull off another summer season with this fleet. Let's not forget that the beloved YU-AOU was returned which was the perfect aircraft for summer flights to Tivat.

It's also unfortunate that YU-APG is still not flying. I hope the rumours are not true and that it went for a C check.

Anyway, all the best to BEG and I hope they add a few more bus gates when the renovation of A6-A10 begins.

Aviokarta previously reported that Air Serbia and Serbian government were willing to sign a contract with 15 countries, including Saudi Arabia.

Today, Saudi Arabian delegation visited Belgrade.

Can we hope for some flights? I know there is not much O&D demand between two countries, but maybe Air Serbia can transfer pax to Arabia since it would be one of the unique airlines to have flights to Riyadh.

Ljajic is in Riyadh and successfully organized for a group of Saudi businessmen and politicians to visit Serbia. He is also trying to increase the number of Saudi tourists in Serbia - so we may see some charter flights.

@6:07Oh please, how old are you? When you compare what was Jat just 15 months ago and what is ASL now..You will understand what I am talking about. ASL is not small and insignificant airline, it is one of the best airlines in the Balkans. I think that Aegean is better, but you can't just say like that like you are 10 years old and wishful to throw ASL on the bottom. ASL is a pretty good airline, not perfect of course, but it's not insignificant. Are you Croat or Greek troll or something?

Aegean and Air Serbia have interline agreeement and their routes are more complementary than competitive. Both are great examples of growing success in the region and both are codesharing with Etihad. Go ASL and AEE!

Ideas and designs on how to expand BEG airport were available for decades. Money wasn't and still isn't. Those who have it (EBRD, anyone?) don't want to invest as it could be seen as a threat to EU airports in the region, and they are doing everything they (legally?) can to prevent others (UAE, anyone?) to invest. Best way for EU to deny this is to invest big in BEG, but that's not happening, so it makes it true.

It's just funny how stupid the management is. Now you tell me that they will wait while BEG is too tight, and than they will..See how they are gonna expand it??? Wut? So even if construction of T3 or expansion of T2 begins next year, we wont see results before 2017-2018?? Are they retarded?

If you knew how many years it took airport to refurbish C and A gates so far, you would not dare make a statement about expansion of T2 by summer of 2015. To expand (assuming building new gates C7-C10 plus adding another level) and refurbish A7-A10 gates it would take probably 1,5-2 years at the rate we've seen so far. Not even part of it will be ready by S15.

When I mentioned the expansion I was referring to the refurbishment of the A6-A10 gate area were small terminal space will be added, the same formula as with the C gates. I assumed that people on here would understand that I was not speakng about the actual enlargement of the terminal. I guess I was wrong. ;)

It's sad that Serbia does not have money for expansion in BEG, still government said that Serbia will probably invest in BEG or they are gonna find concessor. I hope for this second. And BEG has to be expanded, I would renovate T1, increase capacity to 8 million, and than when I see that the number of passengers is coming to 7 million I would start building T3 and the second runway,

Arghhh, T1 redux... reminds me of TWA terminal saga at JFK. Great piece of history but just a piece of you-know-what when it comes to modern day practical use as terminal. JetBlue figured it out and BEG should too: leave old one alone (or destroy it) and build a brand new, functional terminal. Call it T5 if you want :)

1. SERBIA DOES NOT HAVE MONEY FOR THAT LUXURY.2. I doubt somebody from outward will invest in BEG, already 3 companies wanted and finally they give up.I hope BEG will be expanded in the future, but I will wait until I see construction site at BEG, cause too lies were told here.

This is a complete lie that has been debunked in detail many times. It is not about capacity to operate today, but rather about capacity to operate in the same "wave hub" fashion using same facilities (airbridges) during peak season in a couple of years (with planned expansion of Air Serbia). If you have any detailed facts to back up your statement, please provide links here.

Government has been trying to sell or lease Belgrade airport back in mid 2013 with additional terminal (among other things) as a requirement. If there was enough capacity (or potential to stretch current facilities beyond 2020 needs), they would not continue to seek investor/buyer for the airport.

As long as BEG is not under ASL they do not need to follow their rules. Much bigger airports have smaller number of airbridges. Capacity of BEG is around 8-10 millions. Many airline companies will use larger plains in future. No one will buy it with additional terminal requirement with this unstable government. They have two strikes in same time with possibility to get additional ones.

WTF 8-10 million?!?! Please show us the link where we can find detailed analysis for this (fake) estimate.

All the real estate you actually NEED to have is a runway, taxiway and a slab of concrete called apron to park the plane, but if that's how you got to 8-10 million for BEG I would not entertain to continue this discussion.

I would like to believe they decided what to do with BEG long time ago, but funding that vision is another story.Investing in MUC expansion is great if you believe that LH will continue to corral central and eastern European neocolonies through FRA/MUC and that LCC’s and ME3 are just a temporary fad that will fade away soon. My financial advisor doesn’t think it’s a good long term investment.

Well, Lufthansa keeps on recording growing profits so I am sure they know what they are doing. By the way, the airline secured record growth despite the strike(s).

Lufthansa and Munich airport have shared the expenses necessary for this terminal to be built. They understand how important an airport is for the success of an airline. Unfortunately the peasants running Serbia are too primitive to understand that, even less to think strategically.

I don't expect you would understand what is wrong, just like Christoph Franz did not understand what was wrong when he said "Don’t sell Alitalia to the Sheikhs". Conversation with the therapist should help.

I'm sorry but JU's situation isn't looking too good at the moment from my point of view. They have a fleet shortage at the moment which isn't being sorted out, YU-APG apparently won't be flying for a long time, they definitely will not be able to do the summer season with the current fleet.

They badly need 2 more A319/320 to cover CURRENT fleet needs let alone expansion. For expansion they need more ATR's and more Airbuses with no announcements yet as to them joining the fleet. The summer season is only 5 months away remember!

Can any people with more info please shed light as to why JU seems to be doing nothing about this problem that will certainly not help the airline next year?

It appears Air Serbia management now prefers to keep it in the stealth mode when it comes to announcing new routes and fleet additions as long as possible. Competition is now paying attention to ASL and keeping things in the dark makes it harder for competitors to preempt ASL's moves. Others already announced S15 changes but ASL will probably keep cards close to their chest as long as possible.

On the other hand, flights to North America are Air Serbia's moonshot project and from the marketing perspective (as well as outstanding paperwork perspective) those big bets are benefitial when announced well in advance.

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Cyprus Airways

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